Best Answers

I have a 14yr.old Maltese who is actually small for a maltese. She only weighs about 3 1/2-4 lbs. Her mother weighed 4 and her father 5lbs. I believe the norm for a Maltese is 6 1/2 - 9lbs. At least, that is what I saw on a dog chart at a vets office once. A maltese that weighs more is either overweight or was bred w/ larger maltese so that they can have more pups/therefore, make more money. It really depends on the weight of the mother and father, that will determine the size of your pup. As you can see my Maltese's parents were actually small in comparison to the norm. Hope this helps! Enjoy your pup! She's beautiful!

According to the Maltese breed standard, a fully grown dog should not weigh more than 7lbs, with the ideal weight being 4 to 6. However, the standard says that the quality of the dog is more important than the weight.
Weight depends on a lot of things.
The first factor is genetic - the size of the parents is usually a good indicator of how big the puppies can be expected to be. If both parents are within the standard, there is a good chance that the offspring will as well. However, it does not always work that way. Sometimes genetics aren't perfectly predictable and you may get a dog that is larger or smaller.
The second factor is, of course, feeding. Two dogs that are the same height can be very different weights if one is slender and the other is fat. Most dogs in the United States (over 60%) are overweight. You need to really make sure that your puppy's size problem has to do with being overly large, not overly heavy.